Two Recent Butterflies

Two recent sightings of butterflies during a week spent with my daughter... The Peacock nectaring on sallow on Barlow Common Nature Reserve near Selby on Fri 16th and the comma the next day near Luddenden foot.

Historical records from 1945

1945 was said to be a 'Plusia' year in the Hebden valley, taken at ' Light'were Gold Spot,Burnished Brass,Golden Plusia Lesser Yellow underwing ,Clouded Magpie and Snout.It may be noted that 'Light' consisted of an open kitchen window with a 150 watt bulb on a white kitcen table,The Naturalist 1945 p154.Gibson,Mills and Sunderland

Knott Wood sat night

What a night,clear skies and cold,but there were plenty of moths about from dusk.-
Common Quaker 152
Powdered Quaker 1
Small Quaker 6
Twin st quaker 38
Hebrew Character 26
Clouded drab 37
Red Chestnut 24
Early Tooth Striped 17
Chestnut 7
Early Thorn 1
Early Grey 2
Brindled Pug 6
Red Sword Grass 1
Satellite 4
D.Fagella 3
Eriocrania subpurpurella 10

Historical records from 1924/5

Recived a load of old records via winston the other day and have just had time to have a look at them.Realy great stuff about sugaring in the Tod /Hebden area 85 years ago, and were still at it.??? There is refernce to sugaring stones on the moor tops and a few sightings of Wood Tiger.Here is the list below of sugaring in hardcastle craggs near the stepping stones on a cloudy 28th june evening in 1924.
Galium carpet x 2
Bordered White (many males and 12 females)
Clouded B Brindle
Welsh wave - many
Broken barred Carpet - several
Small Rivulet x 1
Shears x 1
Flame Carpet x 1
Map winged Swift x 1
Common Swift x many

Midgley GMS

Hebrew Character 11
Clouded Drab 2
Common Quaker 1
Early Grey 2
Chestnut 1

Red Sword-grass

Had a visit from 2241 Red Sword-grass Xylena vetusta on wednesday night. They really are something different arn't they. Was trying to gently persuade it to open its wings for a pic but it prefered to skuttle (And was very good at it too)

Knott Wood last night

Another good session at Knot wood last night with and expert catcher on our side,Maisey Moffer was a dab hand and put us all to shame.
Common Quaker 30
Small Quaker 4
Twin spot Quaker 11
Engrailed 4
Early Thorn 1
Early Tooth Striped 10
Red Chestnut 11
Brindled Pug 3
Clouded Drab 11
D.Fagella 1
Hebrew Character 8
We will be there on Saturday night if any one would like to join us.

Latest Birdguides moth article

Can be found at

http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=2041

Some great photos.

Strange goings on............?

I hav'nt had the trap on for a couple of nights because its been so cold,but it felt a little warmer.So I went to tidy out the trap and set the egg boxes in place.I found this cat curled up in one of the egg boxes.....any ideas.??

News from Todmorden

Bri is having laptop problems at the moment but is well chuffed with two leaf mine emergences this week 363 Phyllonorycter platanoidella and 316 Phyllonorycter roboris.Pics to follow.

Last Night in Knott Wood

Brian and I met in Knott Wood last night. As usual for this week any cloud cleared and the stars all apeared. Also it felt colder than of late to me. Despite this the catch was still a good one. Brian has the official list and is off line at the moment but we had well over 100 moths of 11 species which included 10 Early Tooth-striped, all well marked and one of the target species Brian earmarked for this location. Yellow Horned and Orange Underwing already ticked off.

Clouded Drab x 13
Early Tooth-striped x 8
Diurnea fagella x 3
Red Chestnut x 17
Chestnut x 6
Common Quaker x 41
Twin-spot Quaker x 5
Engrailed x 3
Hebrew Character x 19
Brindled Pug x 2
Early thorn x 1
Small quaker x 2

(numbers from Bri by text)

Winston

Mystery moth

a friensd of mine on the Orkneys caught this on Friday night any ideas,>?????

Orthosia gothica

A massive 43 Hebrew Characters last night in the trap.By far my favourite spring species.,Double Striped Pug,E.Monodactayla and a large collection of common Orthosia sp also.

Last Nght in Hebden Bridge

Engrailed 1

Early grey 1

Early tooth-striped 1

Chestnut 1

Common Quaker 7

Hebrew Character 3

Total 14

Winston

Orange Underwing Action

Yesterday (Fri) I bumped into Brian in Knott Wood. Sitting above the tops of the birch trees 4 Orange Underwings came close to us. but not close enough for my net. There were also at least 3 peacocks flying strongly. Winston

GMS Northowram

A good night for the GMS for a change produced an excellent catch in the garden trap.
Common Quaker x 20
Hebrew Character x 23
Clouded Drab x 6
695.Agonopterix alstromeriana x 1(new for garden, the food plant is hemlock ?)
Diurnea fagella x 1
Chestnut x 1
Small Quaker 1
Early Grey x 5
Mottled Grey x 1
twin spot quaker x1
Brindled Pug x 1
satellite x 1
12 species 62 moths

Trapping in Knott Wood

Hi all,

do we have a date for going trapping in Knott Wood next week?

I am free all days appart from tuesday.

I also now finally have a net!

Win

Last Night in Hebden Bridge

All these came to a rather soggy skinner trap during the night

Common Quaker 16
Hebrew Character 1
Clouded Drab 1
Agonopterix heracliana/ciliella 1
Diurnea fagella 2
Chestnut 6
Small Quaker 1

total 29

Monday Night in Hebden

Hi all. A good night on the Rochdale Canal last night.

I am pretty sure this is A. acanthadactyla (A new species for me) as it's a more red-brown colour and less speckled than its close relative A. punctidactyla which also seems to have a more southern distribution. (Charlie, what do you think as I recal you having this one once). I have also included pictures of possibly the lightest Clouded Drab I have seen and a very nicely marked Twin-spotted Quaker.

Amblyptilia acanthadactyla 1
Twin-spotted Quaker 1

Diurnea fagella 1

Chestnut 9
Clouded Drab 2

Common Quaker 14

Total - 28 moths

Pheromones

http://www.angleps.com/pheromones.php


371 Lunar Hornet Moth Sesia bembeciformis (Hübner, 1806) 1
Collinson wrote .’This species is well established in the trunks of mature sallows throughout the district 1965’.No recent records.


381 Large Red-belted Clearwing Synanthedon culiciformis (Linnaeus, 1758) 1
Collinson wrote ‘Larve and empty pupa cases are easily found 1965’.No recent records.It may well be worth a look for these species in appropriate habitat .

Knott Wood Sunday night

Clear skies and cool temps produced:-
Eriocrania semipurpurella x 1
diurnea fagella x 4
Acleris hyemena 1
Common Quaker x 36
Small quaker x 3
Clouded Drab x 3
Hebrew Character x 3
Brindled Pug x 1
Mottled Grey x 1
March Moth x 1
Red Chestnut x 1
Chestnut x 3

Mottled Grey?

The top photo is what we identified as a Mottled Grey a couple of days ago and the bottom is what we identified as a Mottled Grey from March of 2009, any comments? (click on photo for a larger image)

Mottled Grey and Early Tooth- striped

There has been much discussion recently about these two similar species,I think so far they have all been Mottled Greys,this article on the Lansweb site is excellent.
http://www.lancashiremoths.co.uk/visitor/downloads/Mottled%20Grey%20Early%20Tooth%20striped.pdf

Midgley last night

Clouded Drab 3
Hebrew Character 2
Mottled Grey 1
Chestnut 1

Orange Underwing,03 04 10

Hi all,6 or so Orange Underwings,at Knott wood,but the 1st ive seen land,they are cracking moths ! regards Bri

Midgley GMS

Hebrew Character 1
Clouded Drab 1
Chestnut 1
Mottled Grey 1

Midgley last night

Hebrew Character 2
Clouded Drab 1
Early Grey 1

April Tips on Sallow

If you have a garage or outside shed, etc, now is the time to start collecting Sallow catkins which have fallen on to the ground from the Sallow trees. Many of these fallen catkins will often contain various Tortricidae, Geometridae and Pug larvae. The way to check the catkins for larvae is very easy. Simply spread them out on white kitchen roll in some seed trays or similar, no need for any sort of lid at this stage. If you keep checking the catkins you will see signs of frass appearing on the white kitchen roll under the occupied catkins. Once you find these move them to a lidded container and keep an eye on the situation. The larvae may need fresh catkins adding and then as soon as the sallow leaves are out pop some leaves in the tub with the occupied catkins. Some catkins will have only one species and some will have more than one species on/in them. Most of these are fine kept together until they are large enough to ID. The only exception to this are Pug larvae which I find are mostly cannibalistic even when enough food is present, if you want more than one survivor its pays to house pug larvae in solitary confinement ! Its great fun with catkins at this time of the year as you never know what you might find and rear through.

We are now getting close to the one of the best times of the year to find moths on natural food sources. Any night now when its cloudy and reasonably mild its the time to go "Sallowing". This is one of the great classic tecniques used before the advent of MV lights to collect large numbers of moths in one place. Cromwell Bottom is an ideal place to try this out but any area with large numbers of Sallow in bloom is fine. You simply stick a few pots in your pocket, pack a decent torch and a butterfly net. In practice one simply walks around shining the torch on Sallow catkins until you pick out a moth feeding, they can usually be spotted by the light reflecting off their eyes. One a good night there can be hundreds of moths on each Sallow bush, but often around here one is lucky to get a few dozen per bush. If its moth sp you wish to confirm or look through a hand lens its usually dead easy to simply pop the net over them and tap them off the catkins. They are mainly Orthosia spp, but also Chestnut, Satellite, perhaps some Thorns and Pugs. The only other time of year when one can get the same effect with natural sources is in autumn when you search Ivy Blossom in the same manner.

This was originally posted by Paul Talbot in April 2008

Knott Wood Sunday night

We are having a session on sunday night if anyone fancies it,,if we meet at Saville Bowling Club at the small car park bout 1945 ish, its 10 min walk,although it will be muddy in parts.Oak Beauty is target.

A Nice way to round off March

My eigth new species of the month came in the form of this Mottled Grey found resting on a dry stone wall at Norland village this morning. Its cold grey forewings matching the cold wet skies of this small pennine village.Charlie

sallowing

Dear All, shall we have another crack at sallowing. Can I cuggest we combine it with a lamp so at least we get something later on and shall we try somewhere else than Cromwell Bottom which has not been that successful. Any suggestions? Win

Why did the caterpillar cross the road?

Sandra has just returned from a week in northen Spain (just south of Pyrenees) and took these videos of a line of caterpillars crossing a main road. The photos show the caterpillar and the cocoons she thinks they came from. We reckon they might be Small Eggar but really aren't sure.

Knott Wood sat night

Mottled Grey

Red Chestnut

Engrailed
Met with Bri,Winston and Martyn at Knott wood last night, in Northowram the wind was cold and the skies clear whilst at Hebden it was pleasantly mild with light wind.A good catch followed for the time of year.One Orange underwing was seen whilst setting up ---
Common Quaker 40+
Chestnut 8
Satellite 3(white spots)
Twin Spotted quaker 6
Yellow Horned 10
Mottled Grey 6
Hebrew Character 2
Clouded drab 7
Engrailed 3
Red Chestnut 6
Diurnea fagella 3
Although most were attracted to light all species were also found by searching tree trunks with a torch.

Friday Night in Hebden

2 x Common Quaker
2 x Satelite (One white spots, on orange)
2 x Chestnut

win :-)

Knott Wood sat 27 03 10

We are having a session tomorrow night if anyone fancies it,sorry its short notice,if we meet at Saville Bowling Club at the small car park bout 1845 ish, its 10 min walk,although it will be muddy in parts.regards Bri.

Spring Flowers

Hi All, sorry to go a bit off topic, at this time of year these little yellow flowers are everywhere near me. They always come after the snowdrops. what are they? Winston

Entomological Event at Frodsham

Hi all
Just a quick if somewhat belated plug for the Lancashire and Cheshire Annual Entomologcal meeting at Frodsham (around 45 mins up the M62). This is an annual event in which attracts decent (usually a couple of hundred) audiences and many exhibits with a couple of interesting talks given by experts in the afternoon session. Sue and I run a book stall, Ian Kimber usually runs a stall showing his UK Moths site and Rob Edmunds Leaf Mine site. Many moffers who attend such as Ben Smart, Ian Smith, Steve Hind will probably be know to you from various Moth E-forums. Entry is free and its held in a modern hall with decent heating, plenty of parking and you can buy food in ther hall or pubs and shops in the vicinity. Paul Hill of Bio-Equip will also be running a stall selling Moffing and other entomological equipment.

The meeting is open to the public from 11am until around 4/5 pm and opens this coming Saturday 27th March. Sue and I hope to see you there.

FRODSHAM COMMUNITY CENTRE Fluin Lane, Frodsham, Cheshire WA6
7QN
Phone 01928 732222,
GR...SJ521777

Multimap link
http://www.multimap.com/maps/?qs=WA6&countryCode=GB#map=53.29613,-2.71903|16|4&bd=useful_information&loc=GB:53.29612:-2.71904:16|WA6 7QN|WA6 7QN

Catkins

Did I dream it or are there larvae that feed on catkins?
Are you there Paul?

Derek

Fame at last?

See article below from Birdguides, note the comments, we get a mention!
http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=1996#comments

Knott Wood Hebden Bridge,21 03 10

Spent most the day at Knottwood,7 Orange Underwings,had a go with mv,quite overwhelming,30 plus Yellow Horned,10 twinspot 40 common quakers,2engrailed,12 march moth,2 mottled grey,2 clouded drab,2 hebrew characters,5 chestnuts,2 diurnia fagella melanistic forms,2 pics of y horned,anntenae look more orangy to me !

March Moth?

The only moth of last night, am I correct in this being a (well marked) March Moth?

Pixie Wood Sunday

Managed at least 9 Orange underwings today flying just above the canopy at Pixie wood some fantastic ariel displays going on in the sunshine.

Friday night

Cocoon found on wavy hair grass on Friday night aprox 7mm long,any ideas (lep ?)

Keep the Faith

After the longest coldest winter in living memory at last we have had a couple of warm days.So far this week,
Oak Beauty x 1
Red Sword Grass x1
Pale Pinion x 2
Pale brindled Beauty x2
common Quaker x 5
hebrew Character x 3
March Moth x 3
Satellite x 2
Chestnut x 5
Went with Bri last night up Langfield looking for larvae and found 25 + Clouded Bordered Brindle ,1 lesser yellow underwing and 4 brown and 5 Green form of Anomalous larvae.

Knott Wood Hebden Bridge 19 03 10

Just had a couple of hours scanning the birches saw 2 Orange Underwings,well chuffed,thought it might have been to windy ! its great when you get your target species.regards Bri.

Awakening

Hi everybody. I have been dormant for some time. Frozen in on the Rochdale canal! My 4th winter on the canal so far and it stands alone as completely different to all the previous ones. Anyway, really thawing this week. Put trap out for first time last night (17th March) and the following gathered...

Chestnut 5
March Moth 3
Yellow Horned 1
Common Quaker 3
Dotted Border 1
Total - 13

Very pleased with the dotted border as this species has eluded the lens every year so for one reason or another.

Also went through the fallingroyd tunnel 2 days ago - 4 Heralds. probably more as I couldn't stop to look properly. Winston

Early season Moths

Article on Birdguides website

http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=1993

At Last

Put the trap on tonight and immediatly got Chestnut,Satellite and March Moth.

Heather larvae 2

Larvae swept from heather yesterday at Shibden ,I reckon its the same as the ones Charlie swept at Norland about 6mm and a micro larvae found on gorse?? .Collected E.Sangii from H.Beaumont at the YNU meeting last week,a first for calderdale taken at light at N.Carters house last year.The S,aurella mines are common on bramble throughout calderdale at the moment this is in my back garden.

Case for id,Langfield Edge,13 03 10

Hi all,found this case on cliff face at 6mm in length,made from bits of gritstone and debri,its empty unfortunately,so could prob be anything ?

Midgley GMS

Nothing I'm afraid!

Orange Underwing

Now and over the next few weeks on sunny days is a good time to search local silver /birch woodlands for this day flying species.Cromwell Bottom is good but it must occour else where.????

Knottwood Hebden Bridge,05 03 10

Found this amazing coleophora species yesterday while searching some heather,nearly discarded it ! but detected a slight movement ! its just over 2mm in lenght.searched for more but nowt,prob better beating than searching.looks like poss juncicolella ? size seems to fit as 4/5mm full size for that species is stated when full size is attained in late April ! see what others think.

GMS

Put the trap on tonight and found 688 Agonoptrix heracliana x2 and 1 Pale brindled beauty.
A good leaf mining tip from dereks blogg
http://wildyorkshire.blogspot.com/
And Bramham on Sunday meet Hx train station at 9.30.
Good to hear from winston this week his barge is now now free from ice and look forward to his posts soon.

395 glyphipterix haworthana

Charlie,theres still plenty ,found 18 or so in a small area of Langfield Common,they are quite bedraggled,try and get the largest ones if you have a try.Paul,is Blackstone Edge in Calderdale or Greater Manchester ?

395 glyphipterix haworthana larval cases 28 02 10

Heres a couple of pics of 2 larval cases, checked 7 larval spinnings 2 had larval cases with larva inside,1 larva per seedhead.cases were aprox 7mm.hope this makes sense all the best Bri,ps larvas head can be made out on lower case right side.